


A Little Cocoa On A Cold Winter’s Night

by Ink_Gypsy



Series: Lucky Clover Diner Universe [3]
Category: Lord of the Rings RPF (AU)
Genre: AU Fic, M/M, Sean Astin/Elijah Wood - Freeform, christmas fics, lucky clover diner universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 10:51:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9068437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ink_Gypsy/pseuds/Ink_Gypsy
Summary: On their first Christmas Eve together, Sean and Elijah have an unexpected guest.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written December 25, 2016. This is part of my Lucky Clover Diner Universe. Manip by me.

[](http://s755.photobucket.com/user/elwoodlovesirish/media/The%20Lucky%20Clover%20Diner%20Universe.jpg.html)

Sean normally kept the diner open its regular hours during the holidays, but since this was his first Christmas Eve with Elijah, he was closing The Lucky Clover early. The wait staff and dishwasher were already gone, and Sean was doing the lockdown. He told Elijah to go back to the apartment and he’d join him when he was done, but Elijah wanted to stay with Sean until he was finished at the diner so they could leave together.

“If you let me help more we’d get done that much sooner,” Elijah suggested.

“Fine,” Sean told him. “If you want to help, bring the garbage out to the dumpster. By the time you’re done, I’ll be finished in here and we can go home.”

“Great,” Elijah agreed, putting on the bomber jacket that had belonged to his father. “I’ll be right back.”

Elijah liked when Sean used the word _home_ because it wasn’t just Sean’s home now, it was their home. A home was something he hadn’t had since his father’s death. While he hadn’t been homeless after his father died, even though he’d had a roof over his head and food in his belly, his stepfather’s house hadn’t been his home. He’d just been treading water there, waiting until the day he turned eighteen and his stepfather, with his mother’s blessing, could toss him out on the street to fend for himself.

Elijah hadn’t been doing a very good job of it, but then he’d made the decision to go to The Lucky Clover Diner on New Year’s Eve, just to get out of the winter weather. What he’d found there was much more than just shelter from the storm. He’d found Sean, who’d offered him first a place to stay, then later, his love and a chance for a life together. It still amazed Elijah that a year had already passed. This New Year’s Eve would be the anniversary of their first meeting, and they were getting ready to share their first Christmas together.

As he went out the back door, Elijah noticed that the wind was picking up and it was beginning to snow. A white Christmas would make things just about perfect. Hefting the garbage bags into the dumpster, Elijah turned to go back inside, but stopped when he heard what sounded like crying. Figuring it was just the wind, he started up the diner’s back steps, but then he heard it again. Following it back to the dumpster, Elijah saw a small, bundle of brown fur lying behind one of the dumpster’s wheels. Getting down on his hands and knees, he took a closer look. It was a kitten!

“You poor baby,” Elijah crooned, carefully picking the bundle up and into his arms. The kitten rubbed its face against his, and Elijah immediately fell in love. Settling the kitten inside his coat to shield it and keep it warm, Elijah went back inside.

“All done,” Sean greeted him.

“Sean, you’ll never guess what I found outside!” Elijah trumpeted, a big smile on his face.

“What?” Sean questioned, putting on his coat.

Elijah lifted the kitten out from inside his jacket. “Isn’t he adorable?”

It was the last thing Sean had expected. Taking the kitten from Elijah, he examined its nether regions. “It’s a she,” he proclaimed after his examination.

“She,” Elijah repeated, taking the kitten back. “Oh Sean, we have to bring her home with us.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Sean said cautiously, even though it was obvious that Elijah was already emotionally involved with the small animal. Now that he’d established its gender, Sean turned the kitten around so he could look at her face. Amazingly, the kitten’s eyes were as blue as Elijah’s. Sean sighed. It had to be a sign.

“But we have to,” Elijah insisted. “She won’t survive out there alone. It’s cold and windy and it’s starting to snow. If we leave her out there, she’ll die!” Turning his own stunning blue eyes on Sean, Elijah bit his bottom lip and implored, “Please, Sean?”

He wanted to give the idea more thought before making a final decision, but when Elijah raised the kitten to his face and the tiny creature licked his cheek, Sean knew he was toast. “Okay,” he gave in reluctantly. “A woman on the second floor has a dog, so I know the building allows pets.”

“Then there’s no problem,” Elijah said with obvious glee.

Though he still wasn’t sure he’d made the right decision, seeing the joy on Elijah’s face, Sean knew there was no way he could refuse him. “Let’s go home and get our new family member settled in.”

Once they were inside the apartment, Elijah spread a blanket on the sofa and gently placed the kitten on top of it.  
[](http://s755.photobucket.com/user/elwoodlovesirish/media/Cocoa.jpg.html)  
“We don’t have anything she’ll need,” he said anxiously. “No kitten food or even a litter box.”

“She looks old enough to have been weaned from her mother,” Sean decided, “so we won’t have to bottle-feed her. Torn newspaper strips in a cardboard box will do for her bathroom until we can pick up the real thing. As for food, we can open a can of tuna tonight. I’m sure she’ll like that. I don’t think any stores will be open tomorrow, but after Christmas, we’ll have her checked out at the vet, then we can go to PetSmart for kitten food, cat litter and a litter box.”

“And toys,” Elijah added.

Sean should have expected that. “And toys,” he agreed. Elijah was so delighted with the kitten that Sean had to ask, “Did you have pets when you lived with your stepfather?”

“He wouldn’t allow it,” Elijah said with disgust. “He’d say animals make a mess and they cost too much to feed. I’m sure he just didn’t want me to have something I could love.”

If Sean had been unsure of his decision to keep the kitten, now he had no doubts. Giving Elijah something he’d been denied as a child would make him as happy as the kitten was making Elijah. “It won’t cost that much,” he mused, “and we won’t have to walk her, so that’s a bonus. We’ll keep her inside, of course.”

“Of course.” Elijah stroked the kitten, then glanced at the Christmas tree they’d decorated the night before. “Ah…do you think she’ll attack the tree? Cats do that, don’t they?”

“They do, but we can lock her in the bathroom when we’re not home, and see how she does with it when we’re here to watch her.” Sean picked up the kitten. “But the first thing we need to do is clean her up, get rid of any fleas.”

“You think she has fleas?” Elijah looked crestfallen, as if the kitten having fleas would change Sean’s mind about keeping her.

“Fleas thrive in a warmer climate, but it’s possible even if it’s freezing outside that some will survive,” Sean said, “but it’s better to be sure.” After stopping in the kitchen to get the bottle of Dawn from atop the sink, he and Elijah brought the kitten into the bathroom. Sean ran water in the sink, checking to make sure it was warm, but not hot, then placed the kitten in the sink, gently wetting her down, then adding the soap and rubbing it into the fur on her body. Knowing the fleas would climb to the kitten’s head to escape the water, Sean waited for the exodus, and when several moments passed with no activity, he decided there were none, so he soaped the top of her head, then rinsed her off and gathered her in a big fluffy towel. “We’ll have the vet treat her for fleas just in case, but I think we’re okay for now.” He handed her to Elijah, who carried her back into the living room where he sat down on the couch with her and continued to towel her off until she was dry and her fur fluffed.

Happy to have her future with them settled, Elijah scratched the kitten under the chin and said, “Welcome to your new home…” He stopped and turned to Sean. “What are we going to call her?”

Sean considered. “Since you found her in the snow, how about Snowflake?”

“That would work if she was white,” was Elijah’s opinion. “It’s Christmas Eve. We could call her Chrissy.”

Sean shook his head. “No, every time you call her, it will remind me of Suzanne Sommers on _Three’s Company_.” At Elijah’s puzzled look, Sean was reminded once more of how much older he was than Elijah, even though Elijah was very mature for someone his age. “It doesn’t have to be something associated with Christmas. What about words that have to do with winter?”

Elijah counted off possibilities on his fingers. “Cold weather, snow, fireplaces, hot chocolate.” He paused as a thought struck him. “Hot chocolate,” he repeated, then asked, “How about Cocoa?”

“Cocoa.” Sean tried it out, and liking the sound of it, announced, “That’s perfect.”

Elijah sat down on the couch and put the kitten in his lap. “Welcome to your new home, Cocoa.”

Sean sat down beside him and ran a finger down Cocoa’s back. “I’d planned to take you out for a fancy Christmas dinner, Elijah, but something tells me you won’t want to leave Cocoa alone on her first night in her new home.”

“You don’t mind?” Elijah asked.

“Not at all. How about I order a pizza instead?”

“You know how much I love pizza,” Elijah told him, “but are you sure you don’t mind not going out?”

“I don’t mind,” Sean assured him. “And in case you haven’t figured it out, the only thing I like more than going out with you is staying in with you. So, pizza and beer?” He quickly amended the menu. “That’s beer for me, and Pepsi for you.”

Elijah grinned. “That would be great.” Sean got up and went to the phone, but before he could punch in the number of their favorite pizzeria, Elijah said, “Sean?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For giving me the best Christmas of my life.”

“Because of Cocoa,” Sean surmised.

“I love that we have Cocoa, but this is my best Christmas because of you.” Placing Cocoa back on the blanket, Elijah went to Sean and put his arms around him. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. When I think of where I might have wound up if I hadn’t come into the diner on New Year’s Eve…” Feeling tears starting, he pressed his face against Sean’s neck.

Sean put down the phone, and gently moved Elijah away from him so he could see his face. Shocked by the tears he saw running down his young lover’s cheeks, he said, “But you did come into the diner, and for that I’ll always be grateful.” He used his thumbs to brush Elijah’s tears away. “Until you, I had nothing but the diner. You saved my life, Elijah, don’t you know that? This past year has been the happiest of my life, and it’s all because of you.” When his declaration only brought on more tears, Sean was at a loss. “If you keep that up much longer, I’ll be joining you, and I can tell you, me crying is not a pretty sight.”

Elijah sniffled. “I think I’d like to see that.”

“Sorry, but I have better things to do,” Sean said.

“Like ordering pizza?” Elijah suggested.

“No, like this,” Sean said, pulling Elijah into his arms and kissing him.

Tears forgotten, Elijah kissed him back, and when the kiss ended, he whispered, “I love you, Sean. Merry Christmas.”

“I love you, too, Elijah, more than I ever thought possible.” He leaned in to kiss him again, but stopped when he heard the small, plaintive cry coming from below him. When he looked down, he saw that Cocoa had managed to get off the sofa and was now on the floor between his feet, her tiny paws in motion as she tried to climb up his pant leg.

Elijah bent down and scooped her up, giggling. “I guess she didn’t want to be left out,” he observed.

“There’s no chance of that.” Sean kissed the top of the kitten’s head. “Merry Christmas, Cocoa,” he said, then gave his lover another kiss. “Merry Christmas, Elijah.”


End file.
